Metacat

Modifying and Creating Themes

=============================

.. versionadded:: 2.2.0

.. contents::

Metacat's theming system, MetacatUI, is deployed separately from Metacat, allowing more 

independent user interface customization. MetacatUI is structured in a model-view-controller

architecture using `Backbone.js <http://www.backbonejs.org>`_. Some background knowledge on Backbone.js may be helpful for 

advanced modification of MetacatUI, but is not necessary for editing the CSS styling and HTML of 

the included MetacatUI views. 

.. figure:: images/screenshots/image007.png

   MetacatUI's default home page. Users can customize the appearance using themes. 

Quick Start Using the Default Theme

-----------------------------------

To use the default theme, shown in the figure above, follow these steps for a quick start with MetacatUI:

1. Copy the ``js/themes/default`` directory and rename it to your organization's name or choose a unique theme name.

2. In the ``js/themes/<yourtheme>/config.js`` file, change the theme name on line 1, ``default``, to your chosen new theme name.

3. In the ``js/themes/<yourtheme>/img`` directory, add the following image files:

	* Your organization's logo

	* Any supporter or donor logos to use in the footer

4. Create a ``templates`` directory in ``js/themes/<yourtheme>`` and copy the following files from ``js/templates`` into

that new directory:

	* footer.html

	* navbar.html

5. Open the ``js/themes/<yourtheme>/templates/footer.html`` file and change the footer logo image paths and the link paths to direct to 

your new footer images and their corresponding web addresses. For example, 

	::

	  <a href="http://nceas.ucsb.edu" target="_blank"><img alt="NCEAS" src="./js/themes/themename/img/nceas-logo-white.png"></a>

	You can also add or modify the "Help" email addresses displayed in the footer.

6. Open the ``js/themes/<yourtheme>/templates/navbar.html`` file and replace the Metacat logo file with your organization's logo file.

7. Open ``index.html``. Edit the following line to reflect your theme name (``data-theme``) and your Metacat

   context (``data-metacat-context``):

	::

	  <script data-theme="default" data-metacat-context="metacat" id="loader" type="text/javascript" src="loader.js"></script>

Creating a Custom Theme

-----------------------

All themes share the same CSS, HTML, JavaScript and image files. Any of these files can be customized by creating

a new theme. By creating a new theme, these shared default files

are overridden by your custom theme files.

1. Copy an existing theme directory structure, found in ``js/themes``, and rename that directory after your new theme.

Notice that each theme directory looks something like this:

	::

	  css/

	  img/

	  routers/

	  templates/

	  config.js

2. Only the ``config.js`` file is required for your theme - overrides are added to this configuration file as needed.

3. Add a CSS file to your theme by creating a CSS file in the ``js/themes/<yourtheme>/css/`` directory

   named ``metacatui.css``

4. Add your custom images to the ``js/themes/<yourtheme>/img`` directory.

5. Add HTML templates to the ``js/themes/<yourtheme>/templates`` directory.

6. Open the ``js/themes/<yourtheme>/config.js`` file. In here you will define your theme and themeMap.

  ::

	var theme = theme || "default";

	var themeMap = 

	{

		'*': {

			// example overrides are provided here

			//'views/AboutView' : 'themes/' + theme + '/views/AboutView.js',

			//'templates/navbar.html' : 'themes/' + theme + '/templates/navbar.html'

			}

	};

Give your theme a name on the first line. Then follow the commented out examples in ``themeMap`` to

explicitly tell MetacatUI which default shared files should be overridden with your custom theme 

files. The pattern is:

	``path/originalFile.html : 'themes/' + theme + '/path/newFile.html'``

**Note: You do not have to override the CSS or image files.**

7. Open ``index.html``. Edit the following line to reflect your theme name (``data-theme``) and your Metacat

context (``data-metacat-context``):

	::

	  <script data-theme="default" data-metacat-context="metacat" id="loader" type="text/javascript" src="loader.js"></script>

Changing the background images on the default theme

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The ``js/templates/app.html`` file contains the ``<img>`` element for the background image:

	::

	  <img src="" class="bg" id="bg_image" data-image-count="9" />

Change the ``data-image-count`` attribute to the number of images you would like to cycle through in your custom

theme. To have the same background image on all views, change this value to 1.

Store the background image files in ``img/backgrounds``. Keep the naming convention of ``bg1.jpg``, ``bg2.jpg``, etc.

with all numbers from 1 to your chosen total present (i.e. do not skip any numbers, such as ``bg1.jpg``, ``bg3.jpg`` ...)

Advanced options for custom themes

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Advanced users can choose to override the JavaScript files for even more customization of MetcatUI.

The ``router.js`` file can be modified to render different views based on the URL. For example,

a theme which has no home page and routes users to the ``DataCatalogView`` view instead, would modify ``router.js``

like so:

	::

	  	// MetacatUI Router

		// ----------------

		var UIRouter = Backbone.Router.extend({

			routes: {

				'' 					: 'routeToData',    // default is data search page

				'about'                     : 'renderAbout',  // about page

				'about(/:anchorId)'         : 'renderAbout',  // about page anchors

				'plans'                     : 'renderPlans',  // plans page

				'tools(/:anchorId)'         : 'renderTools',  // tools page

				'data(/search/:searchTerm)(/page/:page)' : 'renderData',    // data search page

				'view/*pid'                 : 'renderMetadata',    // metadata page

				'external(/*url)'           : 'renderExternal',    // renders the content of the given url in our UI

				'logout'                    : 'logout',    // logout the user

				'signup'          			: 'renderLdap',    // use ldapweb for registration

				'account(/:stage)'          : 'renderLdap',    // use ldapweb for different stages

				'share'                     : 'renderRegistry'    // registry page

			},

In this example, the index path, ``''``, was changed from

the value ``renderIndex`` which renders the ``IndexView.js`` view, to ``routeToData`` which reroutes to ``data``,

in turn rendering the ``DataCatalogView`` view.

	::

	  	routeToData: function () {

			console.log('Called UIRouter.routeToData()');

			this.navigate("data", {trigger: true});

		},

	**Note: Remember to include any views or router.js in your list of overrides in js/themes/<yourtheme>/config.js

	for each file you modify**

For more information about ``Backbone.js``, see the Backbone.js documentation at `www.backbonejs.org <http://www.backbonejs.org>`_

Creating a Custom Skin

----------------------

.. deprecated:: 2.2.0

   Use MetacatUI themes for any new UI development. Metacat's original skinning 

   mechanism is still included and used for aspects of rendering metadata, but is 

   not the preferred method for building web clients for Metacat.

   To MetacatUI themes, select ``metacatui`` as the default skin during skin configuration

   in the administration interface.

Skins are used in Metacat to customize the appearance of the search and display

web interface that is presented by Metacat.  Skins can be used to make a Metacat

instance exactly integrate into an existing web site, and are fully customizable.

To create and customize your own Metacat skin, you must first create a skin 

directory. This is most easily accomplished by copying one of the existing skin 

directories. Step-by-step directions for creating and installing a custom skin 

are included below:

1. Copy an existing skin directory. We recommend using the "default" directory.

  ::

    sudo cp -r <CONTEXT_DIR>/style/skins/default/ <CONTEXT_DIR>/style/skins/[yourSkin]/

  Where ``<CONTEXT_DIR>`` is the directory in which the Metacat application 

  code lives  and ``[yourSkin]`` is the name you wish to apply to your skin.

2. In ``[yourSkin]`` directory, change all files named ``default.xxx`` to 

   ``yourSkin.xxx``. The following files should be changed:

  ::

    default.css

    default.js

    default.properties

    default.properties.metadata.xml

    default.xml

3. In the metacat.properties file(``<CONTEXT_DIR>/WEB_INF/metacat.properties``), 

   add ``[yourSkin]`` to the value of the skin.names property.

4. Restart Tomcat. Log in as the user that runs your Tomcat server (often "tomcat") and type:

  ::

    /etc/init.d/tomcat6 restart

Navigate to Metacat's Configuration utility  and select the Configure Skins 

option. Your custom skin should appear as a choice in the skins list. Change 

the layout and style by modifying the header, footer, css, and other files in 

your new skin directory.

It is important to note that all customized skins will be overwritten when 

Metacat is reinstalled or upgraded. Please remember to back up your skins before

reinstalling or upgrading Metacat.